So a quick four hour drive from Tod to Essex and I’ve arrived at the deluxe Premier Inn somewhere near Hadleigh. About three minutes after checking in I hear a familiar voice and see John, the Trek XC team manager. It seems he’s staying here (while the riders themselves are tucking into McD’s and Innocent Smoothies at the Olympic village). He also happens to have Sam Schultz’ race bike in his car. As you might have seen with Emily Batty’s bike there’s a brand new Trek carbon hardtail on the block.

Sam’s bike weighs about 18lbs, with SRAM’s new XX1 components, colour coded ESI grips and some reasonably knobby tyres for an XC racer.

Sam mentioned on Twitter that all he needed was a "screaming' eagle" decal, so the team obliged for him.

No chain device, despite the rocky course.

Patriotic Nokon cabling

A number to be proud of

Through-axle rear

Relatively knobby tyre on the front because the course is still pretty gravelly and riders have been crashing all over the place.

Tomorrow’s the Women’s race at 12.30 and I’ll be there in the crowd, bringing you all the racing action on the Singletrack Twitter feed at twitter.com/singletrackmag and a report after the race. Hope to see some of you there!

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And here is sam…lost in London. My mates got him back safely. BTW the old boy in yellow is an ex Holdsworth pro and Milk Race stage winner.
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